I didn't cry
.... tonight's Grey's Anatomy
First of all: I love this show.
Second of all: I didn't cry.
Tonight's episode of Grey's Anatomy included a story about a mom who was diagnosed with terminal cancer. Near the end of the episode you see the mom sitting on the bed with her daughter -- telling her all sorts of advice "Study hard"... "Take AP classes"... "Marry a man who has a good relationship with his mother, but if he lives with his mother, run the other way". I didn't cry. I think this is the first time I've watched a movie or a television show that deals with a cancer patient telling a loved one goodbye (or some topic near that) and didn't end up in tears. Is that progress? Do I want to make that kind of progress? I don't know. But, I didn't cry.
Crimpy Crimpy Progress
Friday night was the monthly Women's Climbing Clinic at Go Vertical. The night's topic was 'route finding' -- how to look at a bouldering problem or a climbing route and planning out where you'll go -- which hand goes where... which foot... where your weight will be... and what your next move will be. All the clinics are about making you a better climber, a more efficient climber, an elegant climber.
I try to make the women's climbing clinic whenever I can. Its the perfect opportunity to get critiqued. -- "What was that? Do it again." -- "Make your feet quieter" -- "Now, why did you do it that way?" -- "What if you try this" -- "Think about how you're holding that with your hand" -- "Place your foot, don't just put it out there" -- "Stand up straight." Ahhh I love it. It makes me be more concious of how I'm climbing -- how I'm moving. It makes me climb slower, more precise and more efficiently.
The clinic's topic was neat. I almost always "air climb" a route or a problem before I climb it -- mentally walk through the climb and try to figure out where my hands will go. But I'd never really worried about where my feet would be, and I'd never taken the time to compare what I *thought* I would do to what I actually did. That was interesting. It was also neat to see how other people would plan out the same climb. Different bodies climb the same route very differently. Ahhh, I love climbing.
At the end of the clinic Kathleen asked if there was a problem anyone was working on that they'd like help with. I immediately piped up about the crimpy crimpy problem on the back wall. I tried the crimpy match a couple times -- falling off just before I could grab the next hold. Kathleen suggested I climb the route from the other side. Instead of going right to left -- try it left to right. See where your body wants to go -- see what position it starts in from the other side -- that's how it should be when you end up going in the right direction. And I got it! I climbed it backwards and made note of how my weight was held, how my body was positioned -- then I tried it from the right to left and voila! Got it. Now I've gotta do it a couple more times and then get it all in sequence. Progress feels so good.